Truman’s Institute for Academic Outreach (IAO) has established a partnership that will bring Chinese students to America for summer programming and also creates branches of existing University programs overseas.

Representatives from the University traveled to Beijing, China, in November 2013 to finalize an agreement with the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP). The partnership with FLTRP, which comes after more than a year of formal discussion and planning, will open the door to new opportunities for international recruitment, intercultural understanding and enhanced revenue.

Beginning in 2014, the IAO will manage two programs in partnership with FLTRP. The first will be a study tour for Chinese middle school students involving a bi-coastal tour of the United States and a five-day intensive session on Truman’s campus. The second program will be a language academy operating jointly with the University’s Joseph Baldwin Academy. The program will offer a course in Chinese language and culture to American middle school students and a parallel course in English to visiting Chinese students, both housed on Truman’s campus.

The agreement also envisions the establishment of a small-scale satellite operation of Truman’s Joseph Baldwin Academy at the FLTRP’s International Convention Centre in Beijing as early as 2016-2017. It would serve both visiting American students as well as Chinese students from outside Beijing.